4/24/19 Emergency Kombat Kast Recap

With concerns popping up with various issues surrounding the initial launch of Mortal Kombat 11, this emergency Kombat Kast was called to address concerns. Items on the docket were fixes related to difficulty of Towers of Time, reward progression, and more.



Derek is back this week, 16 Bit is gone. So first thing they discussed this week was the difficulty of the Towers of Time. Very openly saying that they were "tuned to be too hard", the first initial fix they rolled out (in a hotfix that has already gone out) was reducing opponent health to be more in line with the usual game, with bosses maxing out at 1500. On top of that, the modifiers (like the homing missiles) now happen less often. For the future, with a proper patch, they will adjust the drop rate for rewards on top of some other fixes, like making the unblockable modifiers blockable. The patch with those changes are planned to come end of this week, beginning of next at the latest. The goal with everything is to give a broader spectrum of challenges, as opposed to just making everything easy.

Next up, they went over some details on the Krypt. So the Krypts are randomized for each player, with everyone getting the same 600 chests but in different locations. Certain special chests are static for everyone. So what you will get isn't random, but when you get it is.

Going out to everyone in part of the updates, everyone will get 500,000 coins, 500 hearts, 1000 souls, and 1000 time crystals. No immediate timeline as to when, but that's something to look forward to.

That's it for today. No talk about character changes/fixes, but that'll be coming later down the road. So yeah, go back to playing the game! Or work! Or whatever you were doing with your time right now!

 

The chests are the same, where you get the chests are not. Everyone will get the same 600 items

Did you even listen to the part about the chests?

Riddle me this, then: if the chests are "identical" for everybody but are just tossed into different locations, what is the point of resetting the already opened ones? They said that opening the entirety of the Krypt lands all the players with exact same unlocks

 

So they haven't addressed the overly expensive Krypt prices at all. Instead they're just compensating us with:
500,000 coins - This is cool
500 hearts - 2 chests worth of Hearts really?
1000 souls - How many people have spent 2000 souls on a very specific bit in the Krypt? This is not enough.
1000 time crystals - This is fine.

I'm glad they're balancing the Towers of Time, but it shouldn't have even been released in this state and they've not even said anything about the Krypt prices meaning I won't be touching it for a while longer...

Who is going to be spending their hard earned currency when everything costs crazy amounts?

People who keep saying, "They never should have done X,Y,Z in the first place" will just never be satisfied. We know this already. When the patch comes we will get more currency for fights. They're not trying to make EVERYTHING easy to acquire but make it at least less crazy than it was. At least its a start in the right direction.

 

Poor Derek, guna be a long few nights:

 

Riddle me this, then: if the chests are "identical" for everybody but are just tossed into different locations, what is the point of resetting the already opened ones? They said that opening the entirety of the Krypt lands all the players with exact same unlocks

Riddle me this: what would be the point of lying about that if people are going to be mad either way?

 

So, they're pretending to make some changes, giving just a bit of free stuff to convince people to grind/buy more, and trying to convince players that there's no RNG involved in the Krypt despite the fact that there is.

The worst part of this? It's working, since most people are stupid and they think "the devs listened".

Meanwhile, the towers are a semi-unplayable unfun grind (as opposed to the unplayable unfun grind they were before), and the Krypt is not lootbox RNG but a different type of RNG! And that makes it all good?

 

Riddle me this: what would be the point of lying about that if people are going to be mad either way?

I mean it wouldn't be the first time NRS lied. See - MKX PC version and Boon promising it would just as good as the console version

 

Crazy idea: Instead of assuming NRS is lying about the Krypt in a nefarious attempt to get people to do something I'm not sure of, let's wait until after the game's been out for longer than a day to determine this. The game has been out for 24 hours and everyone thinks they know the design of it inside and out

 

Disappointed in NetherRealm. I feel for Derek, I really do. The guy's probably getting a shit ton of heat directed at him, so rightfully so and some not. But until the promised patch goes live, I'm not holding my breath. I'll believe it when I see it, in other words.

It's a shame, honestly. They could have had a killer launch, but now it's marred by this unfortunate business. The krypt is a lot of fun to explore, and I love listening to Cary narrate, but as it stands at the moment, the Krypt really isn't worth visiting (not that you could really visit it for more than 10 minutes anyway, given the prices). The towers of time remain absurdly difficult (flame rockets doing 3/4th health in damage, fire tornados, chaos fog fucking with controls the entire match, etc etc). I don't mind a challenge...I do mind near-impossible challenges, however.

They've got their work cut out for them. Here's to hoping they can repair the damage.

 

Have they addressed the issues with the PC port yet?

 

some of you need to back down your empathy. this a company you've given your $60 to some of you have stupidly given your $100 to. I get that none of this could be derek's fault. it could all be wbs fault but they should've honestly seen this backlash coming.

 

After the last Kombat Kast, it's clear that they aren't going to change this microtransaction&grind system.

 

Derek looks like he's been getting chewed out the last 12 hours straight.

Well... he has. More like days though. He said he was the one who worked on Towers of Time, and that is one of the biggest complaints from reviewers and early players. It sucks to hear those things about your hard work, but sometimes the truth hurts... and Towers of Time is simply not fun. I hope they end up making it enjoyable and rewarding.

 

I wished they would have addressed people are still having with the servers and progress is not being saved. Thats a MAJOR concern for me to even try any of the damn modes because I dont want to waste my time completing something, then either it get deleted or not even saved.

I want to believe the next patch will address this because they were too damn nervous to get sentences out.

this sounds like a lot of ps4 problems. haven't heard of anything like this on xbox but people could probably be having the same problem on xbox

 

Can someone indicate to me how microtransactions benefit you in this game? Because I'm dog ass tired of seeing it hurled around like they have BF4 style lootboxes full of parts for guns you don't want and XP boosts, and icons for your emblem.

 

I mean it wouldn't be the first time NRS lied. See - MKX PC version and Boon promising it would just as good as the console version

Expecting somebody selling a product to say "this is going to suck, don't buy it" and lying about the mechanics of a system literally nobody could have possibly had time to fully explore when the truth would cause less backlash are two different things

 

The towers of time remain absurdly difficult (flame rockets doing 3/4th health in damage, fire tornados, chaos fog fucking with controls the entire match, etc etc). I don't mind a challenge...I do mind near-impossible challenges, however.

Really? I think I'm a pretty average player, and I can do every tower no problem now. Some are complete push-overs. The toughest boss fights require a few Konsumables. Are you just not using Konsumables at all for some reason...? Or using really bad ones?

 

It's a shame, honestly. They could have had a killer launch, but now it's marred by this unfortunate business. The krypt is a lot of fun to explore, and I love listening to Cary narrate, but as it stands at the moment, the Krypt really isn't worth visiting (not that you could really visit it for more than 10 minutes anyway, given the prices)

The saddest thing is if it's Warner Bros. pushing for microtransations (assuming it's a publisher-driven decision), NRS could've approached their implementation better. Today they promised there will be better/higher Koin rewards, but what about Soul Fragments and Hearts? Those are still going to be tough to come across unless you get lucky with an augment that rewards you additional ones or unless you get a tower that rewards either of the two, and considering the best things are locked in chests that are unlocked with said currencies - you either need to perform a total of like 6000 Fatalities, or you'll just run out of patience and willignly open your wallet for a specific customization piece (which is how these systems are usually designed)

 

Really? I think I'm a pretty average player, and I can do every tower no problem now. Some are complete push-overs. The toughest boss fights require a few Konsumables. Are you just not using Konsumables at all for some reason...? Or using really bad ones?

Are you quite sure?

I'm going to try again tomorrow, but this morning the towers were as bad as before.

 

Are you quite sure?

I'm going to try again tomorrow, but this morning the towers were as bad as before.

I've spent a few hours doing Towers today and had no trouble at all 90% of the time. Any time I had trouble, I went back to Fighter Select, equipped some Konsumables that have instant activation time (that you can use while recovering) and then beaten the fight within the next two tries.

For comparison, there were multiple fights yesterday that I got stuck on for close to or over an hour. That was before the patch and also before I learned to use Konsumables effectively.

I'm also using Augments now and some of them are quite strong.

 

They said the awards will be adjusted in Towers Of Time so the grind in the Krypt wont feel ridiculous.

I don't know why the character towers have to have modifiers on them in the first place. If I'm a serious player trying to max out my knowledge and capability with my character and get their highest level stuff, wouldn't it make more sense to play the game itself at your highest level to do it?

Maybe that's just me.

 

Really? I think I'm a pretty average player, and I can do every tower no problem now. Some are complete push-overs. The toughest boss fights require a few Konsumables. Are you just not using Konsumables at all for some reason...? Or using really bad ones?

Maybe I'm using the wrong ones, yeah. I try to use armor and sometimes invulnerability to stave off shock and fire rockets, and try to pop in like Mileena's sais to add extra damage and get opponents off me.

I'm not a bad player, or at least I used to think I wasn't. But the AI is fucking murdering me. Flawless blocks 75% of the time. Knows what I'm doing before my animations start up it seems. And when I do manage to gain some momentum and speed, a modifier comes out and just saps it away.

I did pretty well on Sonya's towers day 1, and managed to get within one tower of beating it. But today I tried Kahn's tower, and the first fight demolished me (Liu and Kun Lao). I've done tag matches before back in MK9, but this was just frustrating. Liu and Kung Lao didn't miss a block, and never failed a follow-up. I came close and got Liu down to the danger level, but could only get Lao down to 3/4th before he destroyed me.

Maybe I just need to take a break and take a step back for a moment. Reconsider my strategy.

 

Expecting somebody selling a product to say "this is going to suck, don't buy it" and lying about the mechanics of a system literally nobody could have possibly had time to fully explore when the truth would cause less backlash are two different things

you don't say just as good. say you'll be trying to bring it up to the standard of the console versions. don't on the book guarantee a working product

 

The saddest thing is if it's Warner Bros. pushing for microtransations (assuming it's a publisher-driven decision), NRS could've approached their implementation better. Today they promised there will be better/higher Koin rewards, but what about Soul Fragments and Hearts? Those are still going to be tough to come across unless you get lucky with an augment that rewards you additional ones or unless you get a tower that rewards either of the two, and considering the best things are locked in chests that are unlocked with said currencies - you either need to perform a total of like 6000 Fatalities, or you'll just run out of patience and willignly open your wallet for a specific customization piece (which is how these systems are usually designed)

WB is going to have the final say at the end of it. Remember Shadow of War? The true ending was a big grind to get too, I don't think the dev was like "yeah, we are fine with this". WB sets the rules, the dev eats the negative feedback, and after the bad press is too much, they can finally make things reasonable. This is what the game industry is moving towards

 

If I had the power to change only one thing, it would be the currencies. Why do we need 4? Everything should be Koins

 

Are you quite sure?

I'm going to try again tomorrow, but this morning the towers were as bad as before.

I’m only a halfway decent player, and I’ve beaten every tower Ive played by using konsumables and strategy. Some are difficult, but far from unwinnable when using the right konsumables. The only thing that’s been a drag is the towers that cost you to access them.